Inventors are constantly pushing the envelope with their one-off builds that transform concepts into real-world tools. A recent example that caught our eye was a 260-watt laser mounted to an arm brace, much like an action hero in a sci-fi film.
A recent project by Double M Innovations takes a really simple concept and turns it into something rather unique by sandwiching some tritium vials between conventional solar cells to create a self-contained nuclear power source.
Curiosity got the best of one mechanical engineer, who simply had to try out this crazy idea for a jet engine, which was unlike anything you’d ever see in a normal model. The concept employs a fan that fits tightly inside a close-fitting housing and is essentially propped up by gas pressure created by its own operation. A bunch of small nozzles on the fan’s rim pump out gas, causing it to spin like crazy. Now, combustion occurs in a separate chamber that feeds hot gases into the system, which lifts and spins the fan.
Jay from the Plasma Channel wanted to take cooking off the grid, eliminating gas and those pesky open flames in the process. He pulled off the trick by putting together a portable burner that generates plasma discharges using rechargeable batteries and blasts them directly into a metal pan. Result? Slap this thing down on a table or picnic blanket and you’ll have a sizzling hot meal in minutes, like scrambled eggs or crispy bacon.
One builder showcases custom-built photobioreactor from start to finish, having printed the majority of its components on a conventional 3D printer sitting on a work surface. The final machine simply sits there silently day after day, converting water and light into useable biomass without the need for anyone to pay attention to it.
Scientists from MIT’s Media Lab have developed extremely thin strands that wrap and unravel at the flip of an electric switch. They strikingly resemble your own muscles. When grouped together, they can generate significant force and movement, all while remaining completely silent and hidden.
Australian researchers have built the world’s first quantum battery that completes every part of an energy cycle from start to finish. Dr. James Quach was the main force behind this at CSIRO, and he collaborated with colleagues at RMIT University and the University of Melbourne to complete the research. Behind the scenes, engineers shaped the battery as a multi-layered organic microcavity and sent a laser beam across open space to add energy wirelessly.
Australian researchers have pulled off something that quantum theory predicted but nobody had managed to actually observe in matter until now. Working with pairs of helium atoms, they captured the particles existing in two different locations simultaneously, their behavior frozen in a way that has no equivalent in everyday experience. It is the first direct observation of this phenomenon in matter rather than light, and it opens a new window into how the fundamental building blocks of our world actually behave.
Wesley Treat had his face scanned as part of a collaborative 3D model library project with other makers, and when he saw his own scan sitting in the archive he decided it deserved a more permanent form. The result is a strangely fascinating aluminum portrait, roughly life sized and built from dozens of flat welded panels, that now lives in his workshop and stops people in their tracks the moment they walk past it.